Many applications exist in which sheets or pads of paper are mounted on a display rack. Typically, pins secured to the racks receive holes in the paper and thus retain it in a desired portion. Although suitable for other such applications the present invention is a combination clip and pin retainer described in connection with an artist's easel which employs a flip chart pad having a quantity of individual paper sheets.
A variety of spring clip mechanisms have been developed for securing together various items. Typical examples of such mechanism are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,675,953 and 5,379,492. Prior spring clip mechanisms, however, exhibit structural features which limit their use for applications such as the retention of stacked sheets of paper which are to be removed individually from a supporting base. The object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved spring clip retainer for use in such applications.